Biography

Pierre N. LeBlanc studied at the Visual Arts Department of the Université de Moncton
and continued his research at the MFA programme of Montréal’s Concordia
University (1992). In 1991, the Commission GEDEON Commission was created/
hatched.
The C.G.C. offers a philosophical space incorporating the artist’s ideas and identities
as iterated through practice. The C.G.C. looks for synchronicity of influence, it seeks
the subversion of the cult of personality, it encompasses the artist’s influences; inspiration
coming mostly from literary, cinematographic and televisual spaces.
Pierre N. LeBlanc teaches New Media at Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of
Newfoundland.

Themed Panel (Proposed)

Artists’ Publishing Network: A Collaborative Proposal
This themed panel will explore issues related to the development of artists’
publishing networks. The panel members will present two related, collaborative projects,
explore a series of case studies and then conclude with a directed discussion
session focusing on the question: what should an artist’s publishing network constitute?
The anticipated outcome from this panel will be to form a network of interested
participants in a future artists’ publishing network.
The two projects that we will present are: Artists’ Publishing: An Investigation
into Digital Media as a means to Integrate Dissemination into the Creative Cycle,
which seeks to identify ways in which artists can gain more creative control of
the relationship between their production and its interaction with the viewer/
audience; and Expanded Artists’ Books: Envisioning the Future of the Book, that
aims to widen the audience for the artist’s book while encouraging the creation of
new work by artists in other media.
This panel will be a foundational information gathering session for the next
step in creating a partnership between educational, cultural, economic institutions
and individuals. We seek to identify the gaps in our current system of artist-based
networks and pinpoint key issues and potential partners in developing a pertinent
and sustainable network dedicated to promoting artists’ publishing.
We will be actively soliciting participation in the next phase of grant support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which offers a funding program for Partnership Grants: these are multi-institutional, multi-year projects that provide the opportunity for national and international partnering on key issues.